The inventive concept relates to semiconductor devices. More particularly, the inventive concept relates to a semiconductor device including a transistor, and contact plugs extending on source and drain regions of the transistor, respectively.
Semiconductor devices used in computers, mobile equipment, and the like are becoming more highly integrated to meet the demand for more compact electronic devices and devices that are more multi-functional, for example. To produce semiconductor devices that are more highly integrated, the design rules for components of the semiconductor devices have been reduced. In particular, with regard to a semiconductor device composed of many transistors, the design rule for the gate length of the transistors is constantly being decreased.
However, during the operation of a particular type of transistor, namely a p-type metal-oxide semiconductor (PMOS) transistor, electrons generated by holes, which are charge carriers, are trapped in a device isolation region and a gate insulating layer adjacent to a channel of the transistor. This can reduce the effective length (or width depending on nomenclature used) of the channel. In the case in which the channel length is already small due to a small design rule for the gate length, the phenomena known as hot electron induced punchthrough (HEIP) is likely to occur.